Death of an Espresso Machine
Once again life gets in the way of a follow up posting. Last week I promised to follow up with some tasting notes on pre packed coffee. As it would turn out our espresso machine decided to pack it in. Today I was roasting some more coffee beans, trying out new blends such as Nicaraguan (90%) & Robusta (10%), and comparing it to straight Nicaraguan. My wife and I have been giving the home espresso machine a good hammering this week but alas, today all I got was steam pouring out of the brew head when I went to turn it on.
Being the technician that I like to think I am, I set out to pull this thing apart to see if I could find the problem. It took me about an hour to get the cover of as the screws were cleverly hidden behind matching rubber seals. Once I removed the cover, I found nothing wrong with the internal workings. All the silicon tubes and wiring was in good nick so that was an hour wasted.
The problem must be in the boiler. Once again it took me at least another hour to remove the boiler. Most of the time I was trying to find the right screw driver! After removing the screw that covers the boiler chamber I finally found the problem. The silicon seal covering the boiler chamber had perished.
It dawned on me then that I had just wasted several hours in pulling the machine apart. Access to the boiler chamber was just a matter of removing the brew head cover and then the screw cover from underneath the boiler…Doh! After putting the machine back together, another hour wasted, I discovered to my horror that I’ve put the brew head cover back on at the wrong angle… double doh! Now I’ll have to wait until I can get a replacement part and then I have to pull it apart all over again. In the meantime it looks like its back to the old stove-top for my espressos.
‘The only people, scientific or other, who never make mistakes, are those who do no thinking.’ T H Huxley, Aphorisms and Reflections, 136.
Being the technician that I like to think I am, I set out to pull this thing apart to see if I could find the problem. It took me about an hour to get the cover of as the screws were cleverly hidden behind matching rubber seals. Once I removed the cover, I found nothing wrong with the internal workings. All the silicon tubes and wiring was in good nick so that was an hour wasted.
The problem must be in the boiler. Once again it took me at least another hour to remove the boiler. Most of the time I was trying to find the right screw driver! After removing the screw that covers the boiler chamber I finally found the problem. The silicon seal covering the boiler chamber had perished.
It dawned on me then that I had just wasted several hours in pulling the machine apart. Access to the boiler chamber was just a matter of removing the brew head cover and then the screw cover from underneath the boiler…Doh! After putting the machine back together, another hour wasted, I discovered to my horror that I’ve put the brew head cover back on at the wrong angle… double doh! Now I’ll have to wait until I can get a replacement part and then I have to pull it apart all over again. In the meantime it looks like its back to the old stove-top for my espressos.
‘The only people, scientific or other, who never make mistakes, are those who do no thinking.’ T H Huxley, Aphorisms and Reflections, 136.
posted by The Coffee Bloke | 12:09 am
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